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A MENTAL METHOD 
OF BEAUTY CULTURE 










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A Mental Method 
of Beauty Culture 


HOW TO BE BEAUTIFUL IN FACE 
AND FORM THROUGH THE 
* DEVELOPMENT OF 
CONSCIOUSNESS 

4 * 

BY A BEAUTY CULTURIST 

H ) JJ 


Second Edition 


CHICAGO 

MIND CULTURE PUBLISHING CO. 
548 East 43rd Street 
1912 



BF&m 

.fT5 


Copyright iqi2 
by 

D. B. Potter 


LC Control Number 



tmp96 027867 


/ «r» 

CCI.A314908 

'H 0 ( 










Z f, 




'Sis tbe mind tbat 
mates tbe body rich 

Shakespeare 














































































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CONTENTS 


4 * •§♦•§♦♦§♦ 

Page 

INTRODUCTION.7 

CHAPTER I 

MENTAL PRINCIPLE OF BEAUTY - 13 

CHAPTER II 

PSYCHOLOGY OF BEAUTY.22 

CHAPTER III 

DYNAMIC ^ESTHETIC CONSCIOUSNESS - 29 

CHAPTER IV 

THE BEAUTIFYING CONSCIOUSNESS - - 36 

CHAPTER V 

BEAUTIFYING THE FACE.45 

CHAPTER VI 

BEAUTIFYING THE FORM.55 

CHAPTER VII 

CONCLUSION.64 





“JBeauty is Grutb” 


INTRODUCTION 





j|VERY normal person should desire 
to be beautiful, for we have come 
to know that there is a peculiar 
identity in real beauty and truth, 
and truth is generally recognized as something 
very desirable. There is an adverse attitude 
toward personal beauty that many hold which 
is difficult to analyze; they seem to think that 
a desire for beauty evinces vanity, is some¬ 
thing to be ashamed of, and that one must be 
superficial who is enthusiastic in the pursuit of 
it. Down in their hearts they may have as 
eager a desire for a beautiful personality as 
anyone ever had, but they feel, and perhaps 
7 



8 


INTRODUCTION 


justly, that it is a thing not to be talked of, but 
silently appreciated. But however much the 
world may disparage beauty, or pretend to, 
its inconsistency is made very manifest in the 
universal effort to make the person as present¬ 
able as possible. 

We are offering here what we call, and we 
believe with fitness, a mental method of beauty 
culture—a method that should appeal to every 
one. We feel confident that we should not 
hesitate to say that it contains some astonish¬ 
ing truths, and will prove a powerful little 
treatise to the beauty culturist. We have 
delved to the root of the matter, or have 
located the fountain-head of beauty and dis¬ 
covered an inexhaustible supply. 

We first point out the principle of beauty> 
which we find in the mental quality of person¬ 
ality, and not in the material and on the sur¬ 
face. We have shown how the human form 
is a “mental plant,” and how the true express¬ 
ion of life and beauty comes up from the cen¬ 
ter of being; how the whole body vibrates 
with mentality. 


INTRODUCTION 


Then we have given a chapter on the psy¬ 
chology of beauty, pointing out the relation of 
so-called matter to its mental counterpart or 
essence, showing how beauty subtly expresses 
itself in the phenomena of the face and form. 

In the third chapter we deal with the dynam¬ 
ics of consciousness. Having found the prin¬ 
ciple of beauty in the mentality, we proceed to 
show how this principle has a self-generating 
life and activity of its own; how it is creative 
and constructive, and how it can bring about 
a complete revolution within itself, and there¬ 
fore throughout the entire personality, because 
Consciousness (a synonym which we chiefly 
employ, found among words expressing the 
so-called immaterial element of personality) is 
an all-pervading substance-force or the sum 
total of the human body, eventually giving ex¬ 
pression to an ideal “physical” being. 

The fourth chapter is a sort of continuation 
of the third, elaborating upon the dynamic 
aesthetic consciousness and showing how the 
inner or subjective mind is aroused, as we feel 
that a little more elucidation is essential here. 


10 


INTRODUCTION 


In the fifth and sixth chapters we have en¬ 
deavored to make plainer this method of beau¬ 
tifying the personality by dealing particularly 
with the face and form. We have labored to 
describe how the propelling force of the inner 
aesthetic consciousness pressing through so- 
called matter finds itself solidified (if this is not 
a contradiction) and expressed in detail. It 
tells how the inner life and truth rolling out, 
or evolving, find themselves on the outside, 
while still remaining at least psycho-physical 
in their nature. 

In the seventh and concluding chapter we 
have tried to impress upon the beauty culturist 
the wisdom of abandoning himself or herself to 
the inner consciousness; the necessity of attain¬ 
ing to a settled appreciation of subjective life; 
that only by the winning of truth (since truth 
is beauty) and a knowledge of the Supreme 
Beauty can he hope to radiate the subtler and 
richer charm of personality, which is a delight 
and a great advantage to possess. 

In the quotations we have italicized certain 
words and phrases where we desire to call 


INTRODUCTION 


11 


special attention to meanings which emphatic¬ 
ally support our teaching. 

There may be those who will lay this book 
aside, without giving it due consideration, as 
illogical and fallacious, but the more one gives 
it careful attention and study the more will he 
be impressed with its truth and value, for its 
main truth is more readily perceived by the 
spiritual than by the intellectual sense, under¬ 
standing often coming in intuitive flashes. It 
is true that there are seeming contradiction and 
inconsistency running through the treatise, but 
it is no fault of the method but comes from the 
poverty and inability of language to express 
the subtle unity of body and consciousness. 

As the book is to be undertood to a consid¬ 
erable degree by spiritual insight, it will be 
readily observed that every successive perusal 
will bring one nearer and nearer to the full 
realization of its meaning, and it will also be 
found that repeated reading is quite essential 
to make the book effective. 

This is not a method of beauty culture that 
gives mere superficial directions how to look 


12 


INTRODUCTION 


like a pretty doll, though it has sufficiently 
dwelt on minor details, but how to harness 
that absolute principle that lies deep in the 
mental life, causing it to infuse, illuminate and 
vibrate the entire external personality with an 
elegant and divine beauty of which even the 
gods approve. 

In truth, this book teaches that the highest 
flights of soul, or consciousness, are ever visi¬ 
ble to the bodily eye and are seen in the shape 
of a beautiful face and a symmetrical form. 


A Mental Method 
of Beauty Culture 

Chapter I 

MENTAL PRINCIPLE OF BEAUTY 

FTER years of thought upon the 
subject of beauty and a deep study 
of the psychology of human per¬ 
sonality, we believe we have devel¬ 
oped the most potent and efficacious method 
of beauty culture ever known. We have found 
by very deep searching with the inner or sub¬ 
jective vision that there is no dividing line be¬ 
tween the physical body and the consciousness 
of the individual. We can see subjectively 
that there is a perfect correspondence or co¬ 
ordination between the mental constitution 
and the material organism, which, of course, 
includes the outermost extremities of the body, 
13 




14 


MENTAL PRINCIPLE OF BEAUTT 


It is known to us that this visible mortal form 
is of the same stuff as the mental quality which 
is erroneously considered invisible, and that 

the body is consciousness and manifests the work¬ 
ings of the mind. 

In a new sense, we mean to say, the human 
form is consciousness. The so-called immate¬ 
rial side is one aspect of consciousness, and the 
so-called material side is the other aspect of 
the same consciousness. 

When you see your body reflected in the 
mirror, you see your whole being reflected 
there—both body and mind. 

So we know, also, that the art of becoming 
highly beautiful in face and form is largely, or 
we should like to say wholly, dependent upon 
the mental principle. 

The human form, we have learned, reflects 
the conditions of the person’s consciousness 
with even greater fidelity than the mirror re¬ 
flects the so-called material body. Seeing this 
truth, we are amazed at the wonderful power 
revealed in the imaging or creative faculty of 


MENTAL PRINCIPLE OF BEAUTY 


11 


mind for making the “physical” body conform 
to the highest ideals of beauty. 

The great secret of radically attaining to a 
symmetrical form and a beautiful face lies in 
what we may term the dynamic 'power of conscious¬ 
ness, or the mental forces. 

We hear philosophers speak of “atomic con¬ 
sciousness,” and it is a phrase which expresses 
with much happiness the psycho-physical con¬ 
dition of this human thought-substance which 
has such power to work great changes within 
itself, and therefore upon this illusive person¬ 
ality of ours, the latter being one with the 
former. 

And the scientists, too, support us in our 
position by basing their knowledge on atoms 
which they admit are hypothetical and not real 
physical entities. The truth is that these 
“atoms” are but another name for conscious¬ 
ness, and many scientific men go far in agree¬ 
ing to this when they say that matter resolves 
itself into a force, for it is but another step to 
find that this force is an intelligent something. 

At this point the authority of the intuitive 


f6 


CENTAL PRINCIPLE OF BEAUTY 


psychologist is respected, whose researches 
surpass in acuteness the man of conventional 
science, for he is able to see and know by sub¬ 
jective vision that the “physical” being merges 
or melts, as it were, into the liquid state of con¬ 
sciousness and becomes perfectly identified with 
it; and at the last analysis the human form is 
found to be in essence pure mentality. 

Many writers, poets and philosophers have 
recognized a wonderfully close correspond¬ 
ence or identity of mind and body, or personal 
beauty and consciousness, but it has never been 
accepted by the world as a scientific fact. Let 
us quote some able authorities who come near 
to recognizing that the body is consciousness . 

(“Truth” being an eternal principle, and prin¬ 
ciples being associated more especially with 
mind, we find the term among those synonyms 
expressing the so-called immaterial qualities of 
personality, and we shall also find the word 
figuring considerably in our citations and 
throughout the book.) 

Mr. Henry T. Finck, in his elaborate work 
entitled “Romantic Love and Personal Beauty, ” 


MENTAL PRINCIPLE OF BEAUTY 


17 


seems to be fully convinced of the unity of 
mind and beauty. We quote him: 

“Beautiful expression is the infallible index 
of a beautiful mind." 

“The superior beauty of American women 
is admittedly largely due to the intelligent ani¬ 
mation of their features.” 

“It is one of the commonest commonplaces 
of conversation that in moments of intellectual 
or emotional excitement the features of plain 
people assume an aspect of exquisite beauty. 

Love transfuses a homely girl’s countenance 
with a glow of angelic loveliness; and biogra¬ 
phies are full of statements concerning the 
countenances of men of genius, which ordin¬ 
arily unattractive, assumed an expression of 
unearthly beauty while their minds were active 
and electrified the facial muscles. 

“Herein lies the superior beauty of the hu¬ 
man complexion over all other tinted objects: 
it reflects not only the hues of the surround¬ 
ing external bodies, but all the moods of the 
soul within.” 

A few miscellaneous selections: 

“That is true beauty which has not only a 
substance but a spirit .” Colton. 

“Beauty is truth; truth, beauty.” Keats. 

“Truth is the foundation and the reason of the 
perfection of beauty, for of whatever statue a 
thing may be, it cannot be beautiful and per- 


18 


mental principle of beauty 


feet, unless it be truly what it should be, and 
possess truly all that it should have.” 

La Rochefoucauld* 

“Nothing is beautiful but truth , and truth 
alone is lovely.” Boileau. 

“The criterion of true beauty is that it in¬ 
creases upon examination; of false, that it less¬ 
ens. There is something, therefore, in true 
beauty that corresponds with right reason [right 
consciousness] and it is not merely the crea¬ 
tion of fancy.” Greville . 

Mr. A vary W„ Holmes-Forbes, M. A., in his 
subtle and profound disquisition on beauty, en¬ 
titled “The Science of Beauty,” has much mat¬ 
ter in support of the truth of our method. We 
give several extracts: 

“The slightest and most subtle characteristics 
of the mind are registered in the countenance if 
we only had the key by which to translate 
them.” 

“Did we believe that no connection were 
traceable between a corporeal feature and a 
mental quality, we should never admire one 
feature more than another; for all admiration 
is caused by suggestivenesS, and all the casts 
of human countenance are so similar that their 
powers of suggesting material qualities are 
not appreciably different. If, therefore, they 
do not suggest mental qualities, there is nothing 
left for them to suggest/’ 


MENTAL PRINCIPLE OF BEAUTY 


19 


“It is in entire harmony with the laws of rea¬ 
son as well as within the limits of legitimate 
inference to say that corporeal and mental fea¬ 
tures go hand in hand; that every mental quality 
has its corporeal representative.” 

“It is to be noted that there is almost no way 
of describing the countenance, either when 
the mind is at rest or when it is agitated by 
passion, except in terms applicable to states of 
mind and not at all to qualities of matter.” 

“Applied to beauty, Idealism would show 
that beautiful qualities are mental creations.” 

“We admire or dislike a face for the human 
mind that lies behind it.” 

“Whoever denies that certain corporeal fea¬ 
tures tend to become the outward expression 
of mental qualities, the material index of im¬ 
material contents, resists the verdict of all civ¬ 
ilized communities of the past as well as the 
present.” 

Running all through philosophy and poetry 
the observant reader may detect expressions 
which affirm the oneness of mind and beauty. 
Volumes might be filled with quotations as 
interesting, instructive and convincing as these 
we have given, but we shall have to content 
ourselves here with only a few more, from a 
very authoritative writer. 


20 


MENTAL PRINCIPLE OF BEAUTY 


Mr. William Knight, Professor of Philosophy 
in the University of St. Andrews, in his schol¬ 
arly work, “The Philosophy of the Beautiful,” 
offers us abundant proof that beauty and mind 
are one. Some short extracts: 

“All outward beauty is the expression of an 
immaterial principle behind it." 

“Human beauty does not consist in that of 
body only, or of that of soul alone; but by the 
intimate union of both.” 

“Beauty is an abstract idea like Truth.” 

“The great plastic power [consciousness] 
which works in Nature has evolved certain 
definite types, which (on the last analysis) are 
thoughts, notions, ideas, mind-forms, disclosing 
the mind's essence.” 


Excellent as all these borrowed testimonials 
of truth are, we are yet insisting on a higher 
truth and a more absolute principle than we 
have seen anywhere presented. We positive¬ 
ly assert and teach, without qualification, the 
oneness of element—that there is nothing in 
the whole personality, peculiar as this may 
seem, but the ONE all-embracing PRINCIPLE 
OF CONSCIOUSNESS. 

Though proof of this great truth is not at 


MENTAL PRINCIPLE OF BEAUTY 


21 


first apparent, the beauty culturist, in an earn¬ 
est attempt at the application of the method, 
will be able to prove it to his or her entire 
satisfaction. 

All will find that we have a true and sover¬ 
eign principle to work upon, and one that al¬ 
lows of infinite change in the body in its trans¬ 
mutation into all that is beautiful. In fact, the 
possibilities of beauty in face and form are as 
great as the possibilities of the soul, for body 
and soul are unified in the Principle of Con¬ 
sciousness. 

In closing this chapter, let the poet Spenser, 
who had a deep insight into the laws of human 
nature, put something of our truth in poetic 
language: 

“Every spirit as it is most pure. 

And hath in it the more of heavenly light. 

So it the fairer body doth procure 
To habit it.” 



Chapter II 


PSYCHOLOGY OF BEAUTY 

URELY, beauty is infinitely more 
than “skin deep.” It is soul deep. 
It has a psychological basis. A 
beautiful personality is so subtle a 
phenomenon that we find no reality in it until 
we discover the mentality upon which it is 
based. 

We have been in the habit of designating the 
human body “matter,” “house of clay,” “tem¬ 
porary garment,” etc., but the truth is that the 
bodily form, face and features, are moulded 
out of consciousness. Soul, mind, and intel¬ 
lect, are the real substance of beauty in the hu¬ 
man person. The truth of the matter is some- 
22 





PSYCHOLOGY OF BEAUTY 


23 


what expressed by one poet in the following 
lines: 

“What is beauty? Not the show 
Of shapely limbs and features; no! 

’Tis the stainless soul within 
That outshines the fairest skin.” 

But he does not convey the higher truth 
which this method aims to teach, because he 
expresses a division between “soul” and “fair¬ 
est skin.” They are more nearly identified by 
Young in a single line, and we doubt if the 
poet fully realized what a great truth he was 
uttering: 

“The body charms because the soul is seen." 

SOUL IS SEEN! This is what we hold, 
though employing more generally the word 
“consciousness” instead of “soul.” When you 
see a human form, you see nothing but human 
consciousness, expressing some degree be¬ 
tween a low and high quality of mind. 

As Prof. John Bascom says: 

“Beauty is the utterance in visible form of 
some thought or feeling 

Many often speak and think of the ex- 


24 


PSYCHOLOGY OF BEAUTY 


pressions of beauty in a face as if they were 
mechanically moulded out of “clay,” but when 
brought right to the point we all have to ask 
with Byron: 

“Who hath not proved how feebly words assay 
To fix one spark of beauty’s heavenly ray?” 

Ideal personal beauty is so immaterial that 
we sense nothing but an atmosphere, consisting 
of indefinable charms. Let us again quote 
from Byron some beautiful lines which are also 
confirmatory of our statements: 

“Around her shown 
The nameless charms unmarked by her alone. 

The light of love, the purity of grace, 

The mind, the music breathing from her face. 

The heart whose softness harmonized the whole. 
And, oh! that eye was in itself a soul.” 

Her overpowering presence made me feel 
It would not be idolatry to kneel.” 

This “presence” is the whole composite of 
personality, made up of many ingredients— 
“matter,” motion, feeling, intellect, mind, soul. 
When you step to the mirror you see this 
composite reflected there—the total man or 
woman. If you make an effort to scrutinize it 


PSYCHOLOGY OF BEAUTY 


25 


closely, to tell just what the phenomena are, 
your mind becomes sublimated, seeming to 
prove that the reality in it is a subtle substance 
of a mental nature. Byron, to still quote from 
him, in his further adoration of beauty, touch¬ 
es upon this idea: 

“Who doth not feel, until his failing sight 
Faints into dimness with its own delight. 

His changing cheek, his sinking heart confess 
The might—the majesty of loveliness!” 

The mirror reflects as much of the heart and 
soul as of the surface of the skin. A sad heart, 
a sad reflection, and somewhat ugly perhaps; 
a light heart and bright mind, a smiling reflec¬ 
tion, and beautiful to some degree. One’s 
whole life is reflected there, one’s whole his¬ 
tory; or “the word made flesh” finds itself 
mirrored there. 

All this goes to show that real beauty is 
beautiful mentality—including objective and 
subjective mind, body and soul—and that the 
cause of beauty is in what we call the interior 
life. It is as Savonarola asks and answers the 
question: 


26 


PSYCHOLOGY OF BEAUTY 


“What is the source of beauty? On investi¬ 
gation, thou wilt see that it emanates from the 

sou/.” 

And this inner life is outer life, and is found 
upon the surface. Mr. Holmes-Forbes says: 

“If strong mental qualities stamp themselves 
upon the face, so that all can read them, it 
fairly follows that slight qualities necessarily 
stamp themselves on the face also, though all 
cannot read them; and that even extremely 
subtle qualities write themselves there too, 
though none can read them.” 

And the great Shakespeare tells us how con¬ 
sciousness is found on the very skin, with his 
usual felicity, in these lines: 

“Her pure and eloquent blood 
Spoke in her cheek, and so distinctly wrought 
That one might almost say her body thought 

If it did not think, we hold that it was con¬ 
scious, for every condition of body involves 
consciousness, as every state of consciousness 
involves soul or spirit. 

To show further how consciousness express¬ 
es itself in beauty of face, let us quote from 
Mrs. S. C. Hall: 

“Beauty depends more upon the movements 


I 


PSYCHOLOGY OF BEAUTY 27 

©i the face, than upon the form of the features 
when at rest. Thus a countenance habitually 
under the influence of amiable feelings, acquires 
a beauty of the highest order, from the fre¬ 
quency with which such feelings are the orig¬ 
inating causes of the movement or expressions 
which stamp their character upon it.” 

What are these “movements” and “amiable 
feelings” and “expressions” but the children 
of consciousness, or the ethereal manifesta¬ 
tions of an intellectual and spiritual being? 

It is as Mr. Finck says: 

“The soul not only changes the tints of the 
complexion, but liquifies the facial muscles so 
that they can be readily moulded into forms.” 

And as facial expressions of beauty are the 
children of consciousness, so is the conscious¬ 
ness the child of an Infinite Consciousness, 
and we shall eventually find that the truest 
beauty indirectly, if not directly, comes from 
a Divine Source within the human conscious¬ 
ness. 

Professor John Kedney tells the truth about 
it when he says: 

“Objective beauty is a disclosure to us of the 
Soul of the Universe.” 


28 


PSYCHOLOGY OF BEAUTY 


And Topffer substantiates him: 

“Beauty proceeds from our thought , but it is 
implanted in us from the Infinite, in whom all 
beauty resides.” 

And Young asks with good reason: 

“What’s female beauty but an air divine 
Through which the mind's all gentle graces shine.” 

Yes, we stand in intimate relation to the In¬ 
finite Beauty, our own Oversoul, and we have 
to exclaim with Fegner: 

“O, if so much beauty doth reveal 
Itself in every vein of life and nature 
How beautiful must be the Source itself. 

The Ever Bright One!” 


Chapter III 


DYNAMIC ^ESTHETIC CONSCIOUSNESS 

far it has been our aim to em- 
size the great and important 
h that beauty, personality, and 
i the human body, are condi¬ 
tions of consciousness; and in this chapter we 
desire to convince the beauty culturist that 
consciousness has a dynamic power, making it 
absolutely supreme over all so-called material 
phenomena of the body. Gerald Massey ex¬ 
presses this truth with much force in the fol¬ 
lowing couplet, employing the word “spirit,” 
which to us is synonymous with “conscious¬ 
ness”: 

“Spirit is lord of substance, matter’s sole 
First cause, formative power, and final goal.” 

29 



30 DYNAMIC AESTHETIC CONSCIOUSNESS 


And the author of this present work takes 
the liberty, since he is didactically presenting 
a method of beauty culture, to somewhat dog¬ 
matically assert that he knows that conscious¬ 
ness is an entity which is the sum total of the 
human person, though embracing, in a sort of 
illusory manner, a “material” secondary aspect, 
which has always dominated the materialistic 
mind; and he also affirms that this all-in-all 
consciousness is, through and through, cease¬ 
lessly in a condition of change, or fermenta¬ 
tion, and that when its creative dynamics are 
brought to bear within itself there are certain 
orderly and aesthetic results obtained. Herein 
is revealed the formative power of conscious¬ 
ness in producing beauty within itself, and 
therefore in the human personality. This cre¬ 
ativeness of consciousness is recognized by 
Jerome A. Anderson, M. D., F. T. S., in his 
excellent work, “A Study of the Human Soul,” 
when he says: 

“The outer form is slowly modified by the 
continuous efforts of the inner consciousness, 
seeking: a more perfect vehicle for its ex¬ 
pression.” 


DYNAMIC AESTHETIC CONSCIOUSNESS 31 


For the sake of convenience in illustration, 
we may say that the body is the outer conscious¬ 
ness , and that the mind is the inner consciousness, 
and that the two together make up the perfect 
unity of personality. Now this “outer con¬ 
sciousness,” or body, being part and parcel of 
the inner consciousness, or mind, is equally 
under the influence and creative power of the 
will, knowledge or truth of the innermost life. 
In fact, the objective personality vibrates in 
perfect unison with the inner consciousness. 
The vibration of the body-consciousness is so 
completely at one with the total consciousness 
that there is absolutely no particle of the “phy¬ 
sical” life that is fixed or stationary. So the 
body is every whit as plastic as the conscious¬ 
ness, and whatever changes one can make in 
the consciousness, he can make in the face 
and form. 

Now this single—yet double—consciousness, 
the whole human being, permeated by the will 
(and this will having within it an Infinity of 
Power) is mobile and dynamic. 

Here we see a wonderful unity of force; 


32 DYNAMIC ESTHETIC CONSCIOUSNESS 


body, consciousness and mental energy, are 
absolutely united. Dr. Anderson speaks of 
this oneness in these words: 

“Consciousness, substance and force are 
eternally associated—are even unthinkable 
separate.” 

So we find that the motive power that pro¬ 
duces changes for beauty in this human per¬ 
sonality is of the fine mental forces which 
reach back, or within, even to the Supreme 
Beauty and Truth. 

Hegel, the great philosopher of the spirit, 
says: 

“Life shapes the forms of Nature, moulding 
and evolving them.” 

Now this “life” is the consciousness in us, 
and when we learn this truth we exercise the 
consciousness systematically and with method. 
The aesthetic activity of consciousness in its 
pursuit and love of its ideal of beauty, mingled 
with the will, tends to make the face and form 
manifest the beauty that one desires to realize. 
The dynamic aesthetic consciousness seems to 
re-adjust, or remould, the hypothetical “atoms” 


DYNAMIC ESTHETIC CONSCIOUSNESS 33 


of the “physical” into forms of beauty and 
symmetry. And it must have unlimited power 
in this direction. 

To make rapid advancement in the develop¬ 
ment of beauty, one’s whole being must be 
afire with a passion for the beautiful. This 
means that both the outer and the inner con¬ 
sciousness must be set energetically at work. 
The artistic consciousness should co-operate 
with its exhaustless dynamic power and be¬ 
stir itself through and through, to carve, as it 
were, from the rough block of consciousness 
a statue of flesh and blood after its highest pos¬ 
sible conception of its own latent superb 
beauty. 

The profound and mystical Amiel has some¬ 
thing to say concerning the power of the 
inner consciousness to beautify the outer: 

“As a powerful electric current can render 
metals luminous, and reveal their essence by 
the color of their flame, so intense life can make 
the most simple mortal dazzlingly beautiful.” 

The personal consciousness that presents it¬ 
self before the mirror should be so animated 
and infused with the driving creativeness of 


34 DYNAMIC ^ESTHETIC CONSCIOUSNESS 

the artistic will that at each successive visit it 
will reflect a more handsome and harmonious¬ 
ly proportioned form. This should be easy, 
for we have learned that this unfinished hu¬ 
man statue is purely an ever-changing consci¬ 
ousness, and there is never a time when it can¬ 
not be altered a trifle toward the beautiful. 
We never tend to homeliness and unshapeli¬ 
ness except when we allow our consciousness 
to deteriorate. 

If the beauty culturist is genuinely enthusi¬ 
astic, he or she can make the inner and outer 
consciousness very effectively “pull together." 
The outer consciousness can engage itself up¬ 
on the exterior of the personality, while the 
inner consciousness works on the subjective 
side. Day and night the work can be carried 
on, for the interior consciousness can be 
active during the nocturnal dream state or in 
deep sleep itself. Whoever coined the phrase 
“beauty sleep” must have somewhat recog¬ 
nized this truth. 

If in the waking hours we have been ener¬ 
getically working for aesthetic development, 


DYNAMIC AESTHETIC CONSCIOUSNESS 35 


and our consciousness has been dwelling in 
the realm of a beautiful ideal, our sleeping 
dreams will be of the beautiful and our dream¬ 
less sleep peaceful, subtly moulding and beau¬ 
tifying the personality. Sleep is a very sub¬ 
jective state, and subjective activity being 
nearer the Great Source of Beauty it seems to 
do more effective work in changing the con¬ 
sciousness, and therefore the personality, into 
the likeness of the Supreme Beauty. 

Since we have discovered that this “material” 
form of ours is the substance of consciousness, 
we set no limit to our expectations of beauty. 
Flesh and bones obey the commands and 
wishes of the dynamic consciousness because 
they are two of its ingredients, and its subtle 
power dominates all. 



Chapter IV 

THE BEAUTIFYING CONSCIOUSNESS 



NOTHER chapter dealing with the 
beautifying or dynamic aesthetic 
consciousness will no doubt be an 
advantage to the beauty culturist 


in his effort to apply this mental method. 

The dictionary says, Consciousness is the 
knowledge of sensations and mental opera¬ 
tions, or of what passes in one’s own mind; 
the act of the mind which makes known an in¬ 
ternal object. It quotes from Sir W. Hamilton 
as follows: 

“Consciousness is the recognition by the 
mind or ego of its acts or affections;—in other 
words, the self-affirmation that certain modi- 


36 




THE BEAUTIFYING CONSCIOUSNESS 37 

fications are known by me, and that these 
modifications are mine.” 

These paragraphs state the meaning of con¬ 
sciousness quite clearly, and everyone ought 
to be able to realize that he possesses this in¬ 
trospective faculty. At first the average per¬ 
son may feel surprised that he is able to look 
at and observe his own thoughts, but this is 
really what every normal human being does 
more or less. And it means nothing other than 
looking within. And the modifications spoken 
of by Hamilton have a more physiological 
significance than we have been accustomed to 
suppose. They have what we may figuratively, 
if not literally, call a chemical effect upon the 
whole person. They indicate either a con¬ 
structive and beautifying tendency, or one 
that is the opposite. 

And an aesthetic consciousness is one that 
engages itself with ideas and images of the 
beautiful, and here particularly of a beautiful 
personality. Or it is a condition of mind that 
is permeated and saturated with the elements, 
if we may so speak, of beauty—a faculty that 


38 


THE BEAUTIFYING CONSCIOUSNESS 


loves to pursue and identify itself with mental 
pictures of personal beauty. 

And by the phrase “dynamic aesthetic con¬ 
sciousness” is meant a consciousness such as 
we have indicated above driven by an intelli¬ 
gent will that is inherent in the thoughts 
and mental constitution of every individual— 
an almost mechanical and effective spiritual 
force that is capable of marvelous work in 
beautifying the entire personality. 

When Rev. A. W. Monerie, M. A., D. Sc., 
writes as follows in his fine metaphysical essay 
on “Personality,” one might almost fancy him 
speaking of the dynamic aesthetic conscious¬ 
ness: 

“Underlying the fleeting phenomena of our 
mental life, we have discovered then, it would 
seem, a neumena—a permanent substance—an 
ego, capable of not only perceiving these phe¬ 
nomena, but changing them—a creative being, 
having power to originate events.” 

He might have said, a consciousness capable, 
through the power of endlessly changing it¬ 
self, of creating beauty in the human form to 
'an infinite extent, because the form is em- 


THE BEAUTIFYING CONSCIOUSNESS 


39 


braced in and made up of this changing con¬ 
sciousness. 

The celebrated Frenchman, M. Taine, utters 
a great truth when he says: 

“There is a fixed connection between what 
a man admires and what he is.” 

In other words, to pursue beauty, to search 
for it in the consciousness, to look up to the 
highest ideal of beauty, to dream of it, to af¬ 
firm for one’s self just the beauty that one de¬ 
sires, is to be identified with it. Wherever 
the consciousness travels, in whatever realm 
of existence it lives, it always has with it a 
perfect reflection of itself in the form. 

It is by looking into the mind, into the 
changing consciousness, that we discover that 
exquisite and indescribable beauty which we 
wish most eagerly to make ourselves one with. 
Plotinus, the great idealistic philosopher, speaks 
of this in these words: 

“Beauty does not lie in material substance, 
but in those eternal ideas which material 
forms reflect. It is to be seen not with the 
outward but with the inward eye.” 


40 THE BEAUTIFYING CONSCIOUSNESS 


It is the eyes of the mind, then, that we 
should open to behold both the beauty of the 
Universe and that of our own person. We 
should take a quiet time when we can to look 
within for beauty. A good period is at retiring 
and before dropping to sleep. Then all the 
conditions are nearer perfect for thinking, 
meditation and introspection. Then it is that 
we can most readily note the changes in con¬ 
sciousness, and if we have seen that truth that 
tells us that consciousness is all, then we know 
that the change is universal throughout the 
whole being. 

If we were dependent on body alone for a 
high realization of beauty, there would be lit¬ 
tle hope for one, for, as Shaftsbury has said: 

“There is no principle of beauty in body, 
none at all. For the body can no way be the 
cause of beauty to itself.” 

But having a boundless expanse of mind 
from which to draw our beauty, we may reach 
up with the dynamic aesthetic consciousness 
to an interminable height and never find the 
supply running short. A little effort and prac- 


THE BEAUTIFYING CONSCIOUSNESS 


41 


tice in finding this change of consciousness, 
which means a higher development of it and 
therefore more beauty, will soon make us 
aware of its reality, and soon a groove of 
thought, as it were, will be worn, and every 
time that we return to it, it will be more appar¬ 
ent, and finally will result in the building of a 
world of beauty to which we may retreat at 
will. 

We are offering the following formula as a 
help to those who have difficulty in realizing 
the substantiality of the inner consciousness. 
The affirmations and auto-suggestions that it 
contains will help to arouse the latter, creating 
a vibration of beauty throughout the whole be¬ 
ing. While they will not at once and in all re¬ 
spects be true they will stimulate the con¬ 
sciousness into its self-realization and lead to 
spontaneous and original activity: 

“I am consciousness. My body is also con¬ 
sciousness, for body and consciousness are 
one. I lift my mind and dwell upon beauty, 
and as I lift my mind a change for beauty is 
taking place in my body. In fact, a beautiful 
consciousness is a beautiful body. I merge 
my consciousness with the Higher Conscious- 


42 THE BEAUTIFYING CONSCIOUSNESS 


ness or Supreme Beauty for there is no parti¬ 
tion between them. I am changing into a 
consciousness of my own comeliness, grace, 
elegance, refinement, radiance, charm, sym¬ 
metry and beauty. My consciousness is that 
of the Perfect Personality. I am comely, re¬ 
fined, artistic, harmonious, fair, graceful, at¬ 
tractive, bright-eyed, handsome, fascinating, 
lovely, symmetrical and beautiful. Just that 
beauty that I desire is mine.” 

This formula may be memorized if desired 
and affirmed to one’s self slowly and thought¬ 
fully. It involves the ingredients of will, 
thoughts, mental pictures of the beautiful and 
a general creative fermentation of conscious¬ 
ness. By a mere spasmodic effort of the ani¬ 
mal will, little could be accomplished, but by 
the steady affirmation of the intelligent will, 
the habitual concentration upon ideas of the 
beautiful, and a persistent effort to know the 
truth, a cumulative result will be attained that 
will eventuate in a monumental spiritual will 
that constitutes the whole dynamic aesthetic 
consciousness, or the person as a complete 
unity. A really strong will is, after all, only 
the accumulation of thought upon thought, 
and an increased knowledge of one’s self and 


THE BEAUTIFYING CONSCIOUSNESS 


43 


a positive conviction and possession of the 
truth. 

Above all, the beauty culturist should per¬ 
sist in his effort to grasp that very wonderful 
truth that there is no gulf between body and 
mind and that consciousness is all-in-all—that 
it is the inside and outside, the high and the 
low. To do so, will open up to his mind pos¬ 
sibilities in the art of personal beautification 
which no language in this world is strong 
enough to tell about. It will put him in touch 
with all known, and even unknown, beauty. 
As he seeks for the supremacy of conscious¬ 
ness he will be more and more rewarded, for 
the seeking implies the finding as they are both 
closely related by the tie of spirit. By the de¬ 
sire and pressure of the inner forces the con¬ 
sciousness moves on and on in an endless re¬ 
alization of beauty, and the inner being travels 
night and day into more beautiful realms, as a 
heavenly body travels through space propelled 
by invisible laws. The life, ever richer and 
and more beautifying, coming from hidden 
and inexhaustible springs in his being, finds it- 


44 THE BEAUTIFYING CONSCIOUSNESS 


self increasingly externalized. As one seeks 
he will be convinced of the truth as expressed 
by Plotinus: 

“It is only when the external mirrors the in¬ 
ternal, when matter is radiant with mind, when 
intelligence permeates the unintelligent, when 
the ideal (different from and detached from 
the actual) is superimposed upon it, and 
pervades it for the time being, that any indi¬ 
vidual thing becomes beautiful.” 




Chapter V 

BEAUTIFYING THE FACE 

i|K “the human face divine” we will 
now speak. 

When we arise in the morning 
from our slumber, we have the 
consciousness of an unwashed face and uncombed 
hair. When we have performed the acts of 
washing the face and combing the hair, we 
have experienced an agreeable change of con¬ 
sciousness. We have improved and beautified 
it a trifle. This is the work of what we term 
the “outer consciousness,” and we can do 
nothing for the external personality that does 
not involve a change in the consciousness. 
We may extend this work by bathing the 


45 




46 


BEAUTIFYING THE FACE 


skin in various lotions (using meal water, lem¬ 
on juice for black spots in the pores, or any 
good recipe to be had of dealers, with full di¬ 
rections for using) steaming the face, cleans¬ 
ing the scalp, washing and artistically cutting 
and arranging the hair, or beard (if a man) 
cleaning the teeth, etc., etc. We may do all 
this work on the surface and produce, to a 
considerable degree, a change for the better in 
our consciousness. But these changes are not 
much more than temporary “make-ups.” 

We may have discolored and anaemic skin, 
blotches, wrinkles and hollow cheeks to con¬ 
tend with. These will demand the exercise of 
the more interior consciousness. Then there 
may be the pinched and distorted features, a 
drawn expression about the mouth, dull and 
lusterless eyes, etc. These will require help 
from the innermost consciousness. 

Ruskin says: 

“Without mingling: of heart passions with 
hand power no art is possible.” 

And this is true in beauty culture. The 
artistic consciousness actuates itself to manip- 


BEAUTIFYING THE FACE 


47 


ulate the surface, to give expression to the in¬ 
ner ideals of beauty. And eventually we shall 
find that the whole consciousness is to be 
changed from the center to the circumference. 

Did you ever take a horse-chestnut from the 
tree, when ripe, remove its bur, and remark its 
beautiful, glossy, dark-brown color? Did you 
ever look upon one, also, when it was old, 
dry, sapless, dull of color and wrinkled? 

The horse-chestnut is a good symbol here 
of the human person. We are continually tak¬ 
ing the bur off of ourselves, as it were, by per¬ 
spiring, bathing, massaging, brushing, mani¬ 
curing, etc., and finding beauty or ugliness ac¬ 
cording to the richness or poverty of our inte¬ 
rior nature. 

If we are not attached to the Tree of Life, or 
the Source of Truth and Beauty, by the activ¬ 
ity and exercise of our inner consciousness, 
we become dry and sapless, and when we take 
off the “bur” we find dryness, bloodlessness 
and ugliness. 

By the kindling of the passion for the beau¬ 
tiful, the sap will start, and the inner con- 


48 BEAUTIFYING THE FACE 

sciousness will grow rich with pure blood and 
flow to the surface and beautify the face. 

The dynamic effort of consciousness, in 
changing itself into a more beautiful vibration, 
prevents the waste of the vital fluids of the 
body, which, when conserved, go toward the 
expression and intensification of beauty. The 
force of this volitive consciousness has a gen¬ 
eral vivifying effect upon what is termed the 
physical organism in a mysterious and subtle 
way which no materialistic terminology can 
describe. 

As the beauty culturist presses forward with 
his consciousness concentrated upon the at¬ 
tainment of beauty, and his thoughts vibrating 
amidst beautiful mental images, many changes 
take place in the face. Dry and blotchy skin 
gradually disappears, and a smoothness is felt 
something like polished marble. The animal 
feverishness is allayed, and the tissue of the 
body is not burned up so rapidly, but is allow¬ 
ed to accumulate in the cheeks and to round 
out the various curves. With the addition 
of flesh the wrinkles are somewhat smoothed 


BEAUTIFYING THE FACE 


53 


ous latent beauty with an almost supernatural 
acuteness. 

Though a very, very radical change may be 
made with this method, no fixed model of face 
and features can be given, for there seems to 
be no exact standard of beauty, and it is more 
a matter individual taste. Anyway, the inner 
artist, or consciousness, will not be chained to 
a standard, but has an unique ideal of its own, 
and hardly knows what that ideal is until it is 
realized in the union of its aesthetic or artistic 
vibrations and the body. And, furthermore, 
its ideals are every day more lofty and ethereal, 
and it prefers to work in its own freedom, 
originality, and subtlety. When the con¬ 
sciousness is thus allowed to create, it assumes 
a beauty something like that of the woman of 
Shakespeare’s heart, of whom he said: 

“Age cannot wither her, nor custom stale 
Her infinite variety: other women cloy 
The appetite they feed; but she makes hungry 
Where she most satisfies.” 

We do not advise the use of cosmetic pow¬ 
ders to any great extent, because they do not 


54 


BEAUTIFYING THE FACE 


in reality beautify, but rather only hide ugli¬ 
ness, and we are aware that: 

"Loveliness needs not the foreign aid of ornament. 
But is, when unadorned, adorned the most.” 

Natural means, such as the use of pure soap, 
water, etc., with the general development 
of consciousness, will come near to accom¬ 
plishing all that the heart desires. 



* 


Chapter VI 

BEAUTIFYING THE FORM 

HIS method of beauty culture, let us 
repeat, teaches that the body is con¬ 
sciousness, and that it can be altered 
into beauty to an unlimited degree; 
can be altered because it is consciousness, and 
because consciousness has, as we have seen, 
inexhaustible dynamic power. 

We would fully endorse this line from Walt 
Whitman if we could substitute the word 
“consciousness” for “soul,” and pronounce it 
absolute truth: 

“The body is the soul, and the soul is the body.” 

And Edmund Spenser, the deep-seeing poet, 

55 





56 


BEAUTIFYING THE FORM 


whom we consider a good authority, strongly 
affirms the creative and dynamic energy of 
consciousness when he sings: 

“Of the soul the body form doth take, 

For soul is form and doth the body make.” 

Surely, testimony is not lacking to prove 
that the human form is plastic and completely 
subservient to its more subtle self, the beauti¬ 
fying consciousness. Consciousness, reacting 
upon itself, causes changes that have a perfect 
representation in bodily substance and outline. 

Mr. Holmes-Forbes remarks: 

“It should not at all surprise us if we were to 
discover that every quality of the mind has its 
corporeal expression, and may be deciphered 
in time by those who will give attention to the 
subject.” 

We can inform the esteemed gentleman that 
he speaks truly, for we have discovered that 
the consciousness, looking in upon itself, sees 
every minutest corporeal correspondence in 
its own element. 

And Mr. Finck tells us that: 

“Form is crystallized expression.” 


BEAUTIFYING THE FACE 


49 


out, and in due time should all be banished. 
Pinched and unlovely features are slowly re¬ 
moulded, and a softness and sweetness drives 
away the drawn expression and there appears 
a beautiful flexibility throughout, all having 
been liquified by the inner consciousness. Va¬ 
cant, dull and filmy eyes grow brilliant and 
glisten with a beauty as subtle and wonderful 
as the mysterious inner life itself. And where 
the hair has lost its life and glossiness and re¬ 
fuses to grow, and there is baldness, the urge 
of the new life of consciousness should be felt, 
and fresh growth appear, as in the manner of 
fresh life upon bare nature in the rejuvenating 
spring. 

As the whole human form is just what the 
consciousness is, the face is a perfect repre¬ 
sentation of the life of the consciousness in the 
face. So, if we want more facial beauty, we 
must increase the life of the consciousness; 
and if we want to 

“snatch a grace beyond the reach of art” 
we must pursue the highest ideals that the im- 


50 


BEAUTIFYING THE FACE 


agination can picture and submerge ourselves 
in the consciousness of the highest personal 
beauty, and thus let 

"fancy outwork nature.” 

The most vital and effective work, therefore, 
is done by the inner consciousness. The work 
of the outer is merely complementary, though 
essential. But the true order is from within 
outward, for, as Washington Irving says: 

“After all, it is the divinity within that makes 
the divinity without.” 

We should lay hold of the very finest artis¬ 
tic mental forces that we can command, and 
these forces are subjective, and are seen with 
the mind’s eye. In fact, it is only in moments 
of quiet, when the bodily eye is closed, that 
we can get the most perfect view of our beau¬ 
ty. One cannot by manipulating the mirror 
improve his beauty, but must change the sub¬ 
ject before the mirror, and this subject is his 
or her consciousness, or the personality; and 
it is changed within itself by pursuing with 
mental force its ideals, and these ideals are seen 


BEAUTIFYING THE FACE 


51 


more easily when the vision is not distracted 
by the less beautiful objects of the outer world. 

Since, as Shakespeare says, 

“we are such stuff as dreams are made of,” 

our visions of the beauty that we desire be¬ 
come the substance of the face and form when 
we have thoroughly realized the visions and 
understand their relation to the so-called ma¬ 
terial body. By subjectively pursuing our 
ideals of beauty with great enthusiasm, we can 
eventually observe the outermost personality 
falling into conformity with the visions. The 
beauty culturist who has advanced far enough 
experiences the perfect marriage of the inner 
vision and the outer substance, so that even 
the surface of the body becomes part of the 
fabric of his or her dreams of beauty, and 

“through the skin peeps out a courtesy which 
dwells within.” 

Let the dynamic inner consciousness lead 
the way to the heights of personal beauty, and 
the outer consciousness (or the features of the 
face and the shape of the form) is obliged to 


52 


BEAUTIFYING THE FACE 


follow; and yet they are one and the same. 

The face and form, rightly known, are the 
growing consciousness; or, as Carlyle says, in 
speaking of the body, it is: 

“a shadow system gathered round our me." 

And there is reflected in the mirror, or to 
others, and even to itself, the condition in 
which the consciousness finds itself at any 
given time. So, with the development of con¬ 
sciousness, with its dynamics, there takes 
place a shadowy change in its reflection, and 
its unhandsomeness is continually fading out 
within the mirror. 

Did we but realize it, we have a more per¬ 
fect mirror in our consciousness than in any¬ 
thing else, or in our estimate of ourselves, for 
we carry a reflection of what we have seen in 
the looking-glass and what our friends sincere¬ 
ly tell us of our appearance,—by innumerable 
ways are we made to see a true picture of our¬ 
selves in consciousness. 

And in its deeper stillness, when the outer 
vision is closed, we may discern our marvel- 


BEAUTIFYING THE FORM 


57 


So when we see the human form, we see, as 
it were, solidified expression—the mental char¬ 
acteristics out-pictured in motion and color. 

Herbert Spencer also instructs us along this 
line when he says: 

“Expression is feature in the making.” 

It seems that if we took away expression from 
the personality there would be scarcely any¬ 
thing left, and expression is said to be almost 
purely mental. 

The consciousness works and creates, and 
instantly there are visible results in the form, 
though apparently imperceptible. 

We have been in the habit of dividing the 
personal consciousness into different parts, 
naming them (to start from the foundation): 
blood, veins, flesh, bones, features, face, form, 
etc. But consciousness is an all-pervading 
mentality throughout these divisions, some¬ 
thing as water pervades ice, or heat permeates 
flame, or, to take a figure from Indian litera¬ 
ture, like “the glowing of a heated iron ball.” 
This last illustration is the best, for the materi- 


58 


BEAUTIFYING THE FORM 


al iron disappears in the “glowing” and comes 
near to showing the relation of the body to 
the consciousness. 

It is this pervading consciousness that radi¬ 
ates the whole life of the form and gives it 
beauty or ugliness according to its intrinsic 
richness or poverty. 

Mr. Finck comes near to recognizing this in 
his book when he says: 

“As decrepitude and premature old age 
means a loss of beauty, personal attractive¬ 
ness would be correspondingly increased with 
life itself.” 

“Life,” as we have seen, is quite the same as 
consciousness, and we have discovered that 
by the right activity of consciousness, life is 
increased, and therefore beauty. 

And this statement from Hegel shows clear¬ 
ly how a highly developed consciousness is 
the supreme cause of beauty: 

“It is only when life animates a perfectly de¬ 
veloped form that beauty discloses itself to the 
full.” 

And it is the consciousness that can main¬ 
tain “a perfectly developed form.” 


BEAUTIFYING THE FORM 


59 


The whole form is an expression of con¬ 
sciousness, or, more correctly, is conscious¬ 
ness (intelligence) and is completely saturated 
with truth and meaning. Shakespeare express¬ 
es the idea very prettily in the following quo¬ 
tation: 

“There’s language in her eye, her cheek, her 
lip; nay, her foot speaks 

And what Hegel says concerning a marble 
statue is true of the human statue: 

“A work of art is not made up of, or exhaust¬ 
ed in, a series of lines, curves, surface-forms, 
colors. It is nothing if it does not disclose 

feeling and thought ( mind )” 

It is observed that the dynamic conscious¬ 
ness, in its effort to beautify the personality, 
aids digestion, promotes secretion, purifies the 
blood, strengthens the nerves, increases the 
flesh, improves the health, builds the bones, 
shapes the form, remoulds the features, fires 
the eye with a divine intelligence and fills it 
with a supernatural luster and beauty. In ac¬ 
cordance with this some one anonymous to us 
has written: 


60 


BEAUTIFYING THE FORM 


“Our spiritual reacts upon the material in¬ 
strument of its realization, moulding the brain 
and nervous system, and thence the entire 
bodily organism, into gradual accordance with 
itself, till the expression of the eye, the lines 
of the face, the tones of the voice, the touch 
of the hand, the movements, the manners, and 
gracious demeanor, all reveal with increasing 
clearness, the nature of the spirit that has made 
them what they are. Through his action upon 
our spirit, God is made manifest in our flesh,” 

Some may object that they cannot see any 
change taking place in the face and form by 
mental effort. But a change does gradually take 
place. The change seems imperceptible, but, 
“like the hands of a clock, whilst they make 
hourly approaches to their point, yet proceed 
so slowly as to escape perception.” And when 
the beauty culturist learns that a change of 
consciousness is itself an outward change, be¬ 
cause of the absolute oneness of body and con¬ 
sciousness, this objection exists no more. 

It may be objected, also, that this method is 
not true, because there are persons with beau¬ 
tiful souls who possess ugly faces and forms. 
On the surface this may seem a valid objection, 
but the acute psychologist of personality 


BEAUTIFYING THE FORM 


61 


knows it to be at fault. It is true that many 
persons inherit unlovely forms, but have love¬ 
ly natures. Their consciousness is therefore 
only partially beautiful; but we hold that with 
sufficient knowledge of personality, or law of 
consciousness, they can be beautiful through 
and through. On the other hand, there are 
people who inherit beautiful bodies, and have 
an unlovely inner consciousness. Both classes 
are only half beautiful. 

The human form and the consciousness are 
so identical that what you do for the one, you 
do for the other. We read: 

“Kant evidently believed that we can beau¬ 
tify the soul by beautifying the body. And 
the reverse is equally true.” 

Certainly! This is because the human form 
is all consciousness. 

We all know how it lifts the spirit to do for 
the body. For instance, let one take a thor¬ 
ough bath, with pure soap and water, after¬ 
ward rubbing the body to a glow; then getting 
into fine underwear, hosiery, and immaculate 
linen; then donning a tailor-made suit of the 


62 


BEAUTIFYING THE FORM 


latest cut, “rich, not gaudy,’’with boots, neck¬ 
wear and head-dress to harmonize. Does it 
not make the soul feel beautiful! But how 
much more beautiful is one conscious of being if 
he has developed the inner consciousness, 
making the form to stand erect and symmet¬ 
rical. 

With the growth of consciousness, the new 
life entering the body instinctively throws the 
shoulders back, makes the muscles and bones 
elastic and flexible, and the step springy; re¬ 
placing the coarse material feelings with the 
soft, mellow harmony that accompanies beauty. 

All this comes from the idealization of the 
body-consciousness. There is the effort to 
see perfection: all the marvelous mechanism 
of the body is sacredly appreciated; all the 
organs, functions, substances and liquids, are 
seen to be pure, clean and beautiful—the 
divinity of the body is recognized. 

The dynamic aesthetic consciousness, in its 
strivings to realize itself, tries to fill an angelic 
or godlike presence, and it shifts continually 
into higher and higher conscious states, and 


BEAUTIFYING THE FORM 


63 


eventually vibrates at one with its ideal self or 
personality. 

The human consciousness stands in intimate 
relation to the Divine Consciousness, and the 
human and Supreme Beauty gradually mingle. 
Spenser recognizes the divinity in the beauti¬ 
ful human form in these lines: 

“Of all that in this mortal frame 
Contained is, naught more divine doth seem; 

Or that resembleth more the immortal flame 
Of heavenly light than beauty’s glorious beam.” 

A sufficient development of consciousness 
puts a halo around the body; seems to lift it 
with the white wings of angels, and bathes it 
in the atmosphere of heaven. And the Con¬ 
sciousness is the god that does all this. See 
how beautifully this is pictured by Dryden: 

“Mark her majestic fabric; she’s a temple 

Sacred by birth, and built by hands Divine; 

Her soul's the Deity that lodges there: 

Nor is the pile unworthy of the God.” 



Chapter VII 


CONCLUSION 

AN’S Consciousness is the all- 
embracing element of the personal¬ 
ity, and a high ideal of personal 
beauty cannot be attained without 
an appreciation of the inner consciousness, or 
the more subjective side of the human mind. 
Therefore it behooves the beauty culturist to 
know all he can of the workings of the sub¬ 
jective or introspective side of consciousness 
or to develop the habit of listening to his con¬ 
sciousness, or watching it with the mind’s eye 
in its changes which tell one of aesthetic truths 
that are essential to the development of con¬ 
sciousness. When one has learned to watch 








CONCLUSION 


65 


the growth of consciousness, he is ever after 
his own teacher and will not need to look to 
outside aids. 

A person with superficial habits of mind can 
never be divinely beautiful, for only soulful¬ 
ness or aesthetic education of the mind can 
radiate a beauty worthy of the name; but we 
now know that this education is within the 
reach of every one who has a consciousness. 

So it is essential to exercise the mental equip¬ 
ment to accomplish rich results in the field of 
beauty culture. It might be said that one may 
think out his beauty. This does not mean that 
he must accumulate a great store of intellect¬ 
ual knowledge, but that he should know the 
truths of consciousness and its relation to the 
“physical” as well as to the highest ideas of 
beauty. 

In the foregoing chapters we have presented 
that truth which is equivalent to beauty (as we 
have noted throughout that beauty and truth 
are one) and anyone giving this book a thor¬ 
ough study cannot fail to grow beautiful as he 
reads and understands. One will find it stimu- 


66 


CONCLUSION 


lating, and this very stimulation will be part of 
the mental change that will show itself in a 
radiation of beauty. We have endeavored to 
show that beauty originates in the mind, and 
that mind permeates the whole form, and that 
the material aspect of things is only an illusory 
hindrance to the attainment of beauty. We 
have also pointed out that the mental is a 
growing and ever-enriching quality, and its 
beautifying power is only limited by the self- 
determining dynamic consciousness. All these 
truths are but the inner side of which beauty 
is the outer side. It is as Emerson says: 

“Truth and Beauty are but different faces of 
the same All.” 

To the degree that you gain aesthetic truth, 
to that degree are you beautiful. 

When one has grown to the point where he 
has vanquished the “atom” he works thereaf¬ 
ter in the region of pure consciousness; and 
his standpoint is much like that of Rev. A. W. 
Monerie, when he says: 

“If the human body consists [as many cele¬ 
brated scientists say ] not of a mass of forceless 


CONCLUSION 


67 


atoms, but of a number of centers of force 
mutually interacting, then the ego might be re¬ 
garded as a central center of energy, forming 
the bond of union for all the rest.” 

The beauty culturist finds the consciousness 
the bond for all the great and small parts and 
particles of his being. Then his entire person¬ 
ality is a grand unity of living consciousness, 
prepared for an illimitable ascension to the 
sublimest beauty, through the ever-increasing 
rates of mental vibrations. 

Plato states that: 

“The aesthetic education of man consists in 
his learning to rise from the type to the arche¬ 
type.” 

Or, it consists in learning to rise from ugli¬ 
ness to beauty, by the growth and develop¬ 
ment of consciousness. 

If one is conscious of being ugly, he need not 
remain so. He may change that consciousness 
through dynamic effort and be conscious of 
being ideally beautiful. As one aesthetically 
thinks, so is he outwardly beautiful. The 
body does not govern the thoughts, but the 
thoughts make the body what it is. Or the 


68 


CONCLUSION 


thoughts are themselves , which subtly and psy¬ 
chically involve or include the body. Instead 
of the thought being in the body, we might 
say that the body is in the thought. But on 
account of the absolute oneness of body and 
consciousness, neither statement is exactly 
true. This has reduced the entire personality 
to an almost purely subjective condition, if 
not quite; at least it seems, or is, absolutely 
free to be the very self of all further height¬ 
ened or intensified subjective states, and is 
ever after one with the highest flights of con¬ 
sciousness or soul. 

Schopenhauer says: 

“The generic will of the Universe is an 
archetypal idea behind all individua. In so far 
as individuals approximate to it, are they 
beautiful.” 

This “will,” or Will, is the Higher Con¬ 
sciousness, or the greatest and highest Beauty 
that the inner eye can see afar off, and the per¬ 
sonality, or consciousness, is led up to it 
through the inner consciousness. 

One’s Higher Consciousness is the same as 


CONCLUSION 


69 


his Perfect Personality, which is inherent or 
native with every individual, and the activity 
of consciousness is unceasingly revealing lead¬ 
ings which are continually drawing the con¬ 
sciousness into unity with the Supreme Beauty. 

Anyone who has developed the introspec¬ 
tive habit to some degree (and everybody in¬ 
dulges in introspection, more or less, whether 
one know it or not) cannot help but note 
these changes going on which lead to a 
more beautiful consciousness. The inner 
consciousness is a world made up of thoughts, 
reflections, meditations, contemplations, rev¬ 
eries, visions, dreams, etc., and this inner 
globe where the mind’s eye lives in a profusion 
of mental pictures, seems to take on the aspect 
throughout of a very fine substance, which is 
constantly in a condition of a sort of chemical 
or kaleidoscopic change. Moving in and out 
through this change are little revelations, intu¬ 
itions, meanings and truths, which are ever 
directing the consciousness to higher and 
higher standpoints of development. In this 
subjective world, ideals, sufficiently defined, 


70 


CONCLUSION 


are ever presenting themselves, which can all 
be worked out by the sure process of the con¬ 
structive consciousness. It is in this world 
that the truth is found that the substance of 
consciousness is the substance of personality, 
and that the vision of the ideal body, seen in 
the right perspective, is the body which one’s 
head is already resting upon. This means that 
to exercise the consciousness aright is the end 
of all attainment and beauty. 

When one has found and understands the 
workings of the inner consciousness, he is able 
to carry beauty culture to infinite and un¬ 
dreamed of heights without any other aid but 
his own subtle inner searches. Words cannot 
describe what only he alone will see and know 
and actualize; but all the world may see the 
radiation. 

This method of beauty culture is for every 
one who desires to be ever a little more beau¬ 
tiful. It is for the old and the young, the ugly 
and beautiful. It will make the ugly beautiful, 
and the beautiful more beautiful. There are 
absolutely no handicaps. The dynamic aes- 


CONCLUSION 


71 


thetic consciousness is all-powerful. To know 
the Truth, is to be Beautiful. 
































































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A MENTAL METHOD OE BEAUTY CULTURE 

HOW TO BE BEAUTIFUL IN FACE AND 
FORM THROUGH THE DEVELOP. 
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By a Beauty Culturist. 

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Miss M. S. 


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548 EAST 43RD STREET 
Chicago. III. 


















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